Drifter presence has reportedly been
increased throughout Amarr space.

Oh
HELLZ YEAH! Bring on the Invasion!!

New Eden Store:

Sanctuary has introduced a collection of
SKINs for the Astero, Stratios and Nestor.

I’m not one
to jump on other’s bandwagons and as such I am not overly interested in SKINS…
but I do have a soft spot for the ‘stero and based on the pic below I may finally
be enticed into this gameplay expenditure… we shall see.

Ships:

The next Tech 3 Tactical Destroyer has been
introduced: the Caldari Jackdaw.

New
Shoes!!!!!

User Interface:

Added a ‘Fit’ button to the shared fitting
window, allowing players to fit directly without having to save the fitting
first.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

This one stems from Lowsec
Lifestyle the pulpit of the Right
Honorable CSM Sugar Kyle… her post, Rambling: What May Be, prompted some interesting, and IMHO some
very quotable, commentary on the definition of EVE…Sugar Kyle

I think building things is just as much a
part of the game as destroying them.

…I believe that Eve thrives on production and
destruction.

Kaeda Maxwell

EVE is a ‘space ship game’ with the 'PvP always
on' option ticked…

Chanina

The phrase “eve is a PvP” game doesn't catch
the real essence of the game. It isn't ‘versus’ every time.

…it’s a PeP or Players engaging Players game.
Be it with guns or markets or hard working mineral collection.

Anon noob

Do I feel entitled? Yes, to play the game how
I want to play it. To play without having interaction or interference from
other’s, No.

As an avid EVE player and blogger
I follow the goings on in the blogsphere and the metagame. I read hundreds of
articles and posts and forum threads and comments which have kicked off replies, comments and many ideas for posts in my mind but occasionally it all kicks off something else... despair. As I read through
the words of EVE pundits, savants and lay EVE players I sometimes reach a point
of mental critical failure.

I sit back, sigh and realize once
again that it is a trap. We are trapped forever in a diametrically opposed
situation. All of EVE is RvB. The Griefer versus the Carebear, the PvPer verus
the PvEer, those addicted to the adrenaline rush of destruction versus those
addicted to the pursuit of ‘perfect’ min/max of creation…

“EVE is a PvP game!” “EVE is a
Sandbox!!” “EVE is whatever I want it to be!!!” “You play EVE Wrong!” “No, YOU do!”
The arguments fly back and forth as thick as the laser beams, bullets and
missiles did in B-R, but unlike
that epic battle… there is not, and never can be, a winning dog in this fight.

This gets frustrating for me at
times… I try to get my point across, I try to add to the discourse and I get
very excited about the game and I feel strongly about the stuff I feel strongly
about ‘n all, but sometimes I just get all “Oh hell, why bother.” about it all.

But… at the same time I recognize
that this is also the ‘key’ to EVE. The RvB like permanent war between the
PvPbears and the PvEbears, diametrically opposed in their playstyles of both Creation
and Destruction… Because human beings derive great satisfaction from both
creative and destructive activities… and that duality is at the core of what
EVE “IS”.

Take a good look at that pic at
the top of this post… that is a very real human thing. The child building the
sandcastle gets a feeling of satisfaction and fulfilled from the end product of
her efforts… and the child bounding in to destroy all of that will receive a
very real rush of adrenaline and excitement from his actions, both very very
different feelings, but both are equally as fulfilling and satisfying for each
of those kids.

Now there are those who will say
the child who wants to destroy only desires to create pain and hurt (IE
‘tears’) in the creative child. While there are those who play from that
motivation, I believe that is not the whole truth for all, nor do I believe it
is true even for the majority of the playerbase... I know it is not the truth
for me. For many like me it is the adrenaline rush of power and the “win”… and
destruction is power and winning just quite simply feels good to human beings.

CCP set out 13 years ago to
permanently pit these two diametrically opposed playstyles, Creation and Destruction,
against each other… and in the doing they have to constantly balance these two forces with and against each other… their job is to keep the strain high yet even between
them. That is real the magic of EVE.

This post derived from Chanina’s
comments… It crystallized for me my feeling that EVE is actually not a ‘PvP’
game… it is also not a ‘PvE’ game…

EVE is a PEP game. Players
Engaging Players in the never ending cycle of Creation and Destruction. With
these powerful forces held in constant and careful balance by the amazing
people at CCP.

Players Engaging Players

Helping each other in corps and Alliances and even in the metagame in Coalitions… PEP to mine more
efficiently, to haul more efficiently, to run missions more efficiently, to
explore more efficiently, to create more efficiently and to do all this and
more with friends.

Working
together in corps, Alliances and Coalitions in fleets to gank more efficiently,
to fight more efficiently, to war more efficiently, to roam more efficiently,
to destroy more efficiently, to hold space together… and to do all this and
more with friends.

PEP of that 'other' kind, the 'in-your-face-kind', with DPS... in the asteroid belts, in the
battlefields, at the sun, at the Jita 4-4 dock, in the market, in 10-v-1s and in
honorable duels, in Hulkageddon and Burn Jita and in the anoms and sigs throughout New Eden and in deepest
wormhole space…PEP on TS, Mumble, Jabber, on the
internet, in blogs by the hundreds, the E-zines and forums, on Reddit,
Something Awful, TMC, EN24, Dev Blogs, the EVEO Forum and all the comment
threads… and in EVE Meets around the globe… EVEsterdam, EVE New England, EVE
Vegas, EVE Glasgow, EVE Down Under... and in Reykjavik, Iceland thousands of EVE
Players Engage with Players from all over the world at Fanfest every year.

And yes, the solo players, the casual players, the Hermits of EVE... the over 50% of us... Yes they are as engaged in the game as the rest of us directly or indirectly through their actions... missions, mining , industry, buying, selling, exploration and solo PvP... They are engaged in their reactions to gankers and gate camps and wars and the ebb and flow of the players... They are engaged because we all, every single one of us, fly and live and die in the same space, in the same game, on the same server.Oh yes, EVE is a PEP game… and it is the only one of its kind in the 'verse. And I live there. =]Fly reckless and see you in the Sky =/|)=

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Over on Lowsec Lifstyle, CSM Sugar Kyle has
posed a question regarding NPC gameplay and PvE in general in EVE, Non
Player Characters… It’s an interesting read. It talks about a suggestion
made by Wex and Dire to have NPC escorts for freighters.

This kinda ties in with some
suggestions floated by CCP in the ongoing comments
discussion surrounding the New
Player Structures where it was said;

[link]
We have been discussing the idea of a
module that recruits pirate spawns to defend against people entosis linking
your structure, but ultimately how customizable the timezone mechanics are will
be the key here.

[link]
You would not rely in NPC defense at all,
it would be a mild deterrent against a lone ship at best, the point is to show
up for your timers and defend.

And I feel this also ties in with
the latest changes and new NPC activity in EVE. The Seekers and Drifters and
the new vastly improved NPC gameplay that CCP has brought us. NPCs that
actually chase you down through a system and even through gates, NPCs that
station camp you, though not as dedicatedly or as long as players will, NPCs
that actively engage and while not ‘creative’ like live players, they are an
immeasurable improvement over the dull-lackluster-rote-mechanic gameplay that
is standard EVE NPC fare. I have greatly enjoyed the last few weeks chasing
down Seekers and running from Drifters… in Hisec FFS! For me to ‘enjoy’
gameplay in hisuc means CCP has upped the NPC game immensely.

That all said I am as much
on-the-fence on us 'hiring' NPCs as Sugar is, but my concerns are all about
balance and player exploitation. But as in all things EVE, these are the
preeminent concerns when CCP goes to ‘messing ‘bout with the game… so it’s
either accept the potential negative issues from player exploits or never make
any changes at all, and I guess we know the answer to that one…

You know, there are times I love
the EVE playerbase… and then there’s the rest of the time. =P

Anyway… what I took away from
this rather interesting post and idea is this. Why is solo gameplay in EVE such
a Horribad Thing ™? Seriously, why? I mean look at the chart at the top of the
post again… That is from the EVE PLAYING
BEHAVIOUR entry on Evelopedia
from an online survey taken on 10.05.12.

55% of the playerbase played a
solo game. 16% exclusively solo and 39% primarily solo. More than half of the
playerbase played a primarily solo game in 2012 and I would bet every ISK I
have that this is basically still true today. So WHY is solo play so maligned?

I know the argument is that
players who are engaged in social gameplay have better long term retention.
This appeared to be ‘proven’ by CCP Rise back during Fanfest 2014 with the “New Player Experience Vision”
presentation. To sum it up it seems that at best EVE retains about 10% of the
new players who actually subscribe.

If 80 to 90% of the people who try out your
game leave, and they seem to be looking for good solo PvE gameplay, GIVE IT TO
THEM! Why is this so gods damned hard to understand??

The vast majority of MMO players
out there have played themeparks for YEARS and therefore only know themepark
gameplay... OK, so give them what they want... really top notch PvE... then
once they are here, you have a shot at them 'discovering' sandbox social
gameplay… IE a chance for us to show them what real sandbox social gameplay is
and how it can be soooo much MORE than Themepark solo PvE gameplay... But we
can’t do that if they leave.

Why is this hard to understand? If 80 to90%
of your potential customers are walking in, looking around for 15 minutes and
leaving... the only possible reason is
that you are not selling something they want… IE, they are not the problem...
YOU are.

What CCP Rise ended up with anyway
was that we have to push new players into social and interactive gameplay. Then
we will see better long term player retention in EVE and this is how to best
grow the games playerbase.

I called bullshit then and I
still call Bullshit.

I say only those players who WANT
social gameplay are better retained by social gameplay. And we are limiting
ourselves and the game by denying that solo players and solo gameplay has real
merit in EVE Online.

EVE is such an immense verse,
with a truly amazing variety of gameplay and NO end game. We can, and should,
accommodate ALL possible playstyles. I have and will never stop arguing that we
(and CCP) should always be looking for New Gameplay that can be brought to EVE.
I still think WiS was the greatest lost opportunity in EVE’s history.

Walking in Stations as it was
being worked on would have opened up the game to the hundreds of thousands of
FPS gamers worldwide besides bring a whole new way to play EVE for the rest of
us. And while I believe Dust 415 is a good game and it does connect to EVE, it is
not really ‘in’ EVE, not on the PC in the same client. The potential of flying
your ship to an abandoned Sleeper Station, or now an abandoned Jove Observatory
hmm?, and hacking your way in to explore and fight ON FOOT… well, we and CCP
lost out massively when CCP caved to the whiners and FiStards during the Summer
of Rage.

So, here is
my point.

We need to look at every potential addition
to EVE’s gameplay from the standpoint of its potential to add to the
playerbase. We and CCP should never limit the potential to add to the playerbase
by limiting gameplay options.

Solo, causal, small gang, large gang and
meta-gang (for want of a better term)… social, solo and even anti-social
players should all be welcome and ALL should find an amazing ‘verse of
experience out there in the black…

With this caveat: Never change the Open World
Sandbox Open PvP gameplay in EVE. The ONLY thing CCP should be actively
limiting is any movement away from Sandbox gameplay to Themepark gameplay.

Or, to put it more succinctly, The ONLY thing
CCP should be actively limiting is any movement away from No Safety to Safety.
IE EVE must never lose the Risk and Loss Are Real aspects… that would kill EVE
as we know it.

So let’s look at hiring NPC Mercs
from this standpoint.

==============================================================

NOTE:

To all those who will whine and
gnash their teeth that we are robbing from the real Mercs in EVE and ruining
their gameplay, to them I say this… If the people who need Merc services the
most (IE noobs) can’t afford you, then cater to your customers or screw your
whining.

==============================================================

OK so let’s say you are an OMC
solo Industry player who simply does not have the time or ability to play
effectively in a group or even yes, a player who does not have the desire to
play with others... you prefer the Lone Wolf game, and you always have. You
have a freighter op to run, say 10 hops total with 3 lowsec hops so you go to
the Market and open the NPC Merc Hiring 'board' and look over the available
contracts. You hire an NPC 5-ship freelance pirate gang for Transport Defense
Escort... the support you bought in this case is 2 Rep Cruisers and 3 Ewar
Cruisers.

The gangs ships, fits and
compositions are based on the available contracts and prices, Want armed ships
capable of potentially destroying an attacker? Want Battlecruiser escort?
Battleship escort? Each of these comes at a significantly higher cost, scaling
upwards by ship/class/fit and gang comp.

If you are attacked en route they
start repping you and the Ewar ships damp (or jam/neut/etc.) either reactively
or based on the targets you call. What this does is add, at a cost, to your
defenses as a solo player... that's all. The support NPCs can be attacked and
destroyed, probably have to be, so you can be attacked and destroyed... this just
adds gameplay on a Risk vs Reward basis. Your have increased your costs for
better defenses and the attackers have to factor in dealing with them.

Now most will say "get more
friends" or “join a corp, EVE is a social game” Dire’s concern was that
this type of gameplay might "increase isolation and disengagement"
for solo players. I disagree. If a player has, due to work schedules, travel,
etc. no workable option but to play solo or if a player simply has no desire to
play socially, I’m ok with that. If that same player finds fulfilling game play
even through he/she has to or wants to play solo, then the option to hire NPC’s
to help with this or that may actually ADD to their gameplay, and increase
their retention.

The argument that hiring NPCs
might "increase isolation and disengagement"` smacks a little too
close to the old “Internet friends are not REAL friends” and “the internet is
isolating you from real contact with others” again, bullshit. Think on that a
bit…

No one should ever have to do
anything in EVE other than cope with the environment and mechanics in order to
do whatever they want to do. I consider coping with the open PvP and
non-consensual player interactions, IE gankers, scammers, war dec’ers, et al as
part of the whole ‘environment and mechanics’ thing. If you fly in EVE, you
accept that it is a dangerous verse and even if you fly solo, you will never
really be alone. I just don’t feel you HAVE to play in a group to really enjoy
or be a part of EVE.

CCP Rise said upwards of 40% of
new players were just, you know Leveling up Their Raven... So? Who cares?
Seriously... why do we care?? As long as ALL the players are enjoying the game
and paying for their time (IE CCP making more money so we ALL get a better
game) then who cares if there are players who prefer solo?? I mean seriously,
how is it a BAD thing for the game as a whole?

Oh I realize it may not be a good
thing for YOU, or HIM or HER or THEM… it may not make Rixx Javix or Talvorian Dex very happy… (not a
dis to either Rixx or Tal, just an ongoing difference of opinion…) So what? Are
we here to ‘provide content’ for each other? To improve each other’s
gameplay? Or are we each here for our own game? I don’t know about you tovarishch,
but I am here to play my game, my way, period. If you get something outta that,
cool, if not, that’s cool by me too. I care not either way as I am here to
enjoy myself.

So what is it then that makes the
socialbears so loudly proclaim that all players must be actively engaged in a
group? Are they not out there in space like the rest of us? Do they not also
explode? Do they not also scan down sites? Run plexes? Run missions? Haul shit
all over space? Do they not put stuff on the market and buy stuff from the
market? Is it that a solo player’s money no good? They pay for each month
whether via PLEX or CC or Paypal or Steam, same as everybody. I say that alone
is merit enough. We need MORE players, not more of just THIS or THAT kind of
player.

Let’s go back to the EVE PLAYING
BEHAVIOUR online survey mentioned earlier. When asked, “Who do you usually
play EVE Online with?” the response was interesting…

The top entry, “Friends I met in
EVE Online”, 68% is very interesting when looking at New Player Retention because
some are (1) Forum Born players coming into the game and immediately blood
jumping into deepest null to join Goonfleet or such, so, well, retention is not
really an issue in that case now is it? But the rest are (2) talking about a
group they met later… but how much later? Sadly this graph does not say.

I am sure some are getting
involved with corps early on. In HELPeR we have a tendency of carefully collecting
noobs. But I have a corpmate who played totally solo for a year before we met
at work and he joined us. But we didn’t ‘save him’ from increased isolation,
depression and disengagement due to playing solo. He was enjoying the game, he
is just enjoying it with us now is all.

But most interesting of all is of
course, the second highest response to ‘Who do you play EVE with?’… 36% replied
they play solo, a substantially higher number than the 16% given in the ‘What is
your playstyle?’ chart at the top of this post.

So I say give solo players great
solo content... as long as we don't change the PvP Open World Sandbox rules in
EVE, good Solo PvE gameplay will never kill EVE nor make it "safe"
nor turn it into a WoW in Space Themepark, no, quite the converse… Good PvE and
support for solo gameplay will bring in MORE players period. If we actually do
support and respect all playstyles, why not work on retaining ALL playstyles?

There are enough players in the
world who will never play EVE because of the PvP and the Sandbox Open World
Rules that we need to seriously consider attracting and retaining ALL players
and playstyles that are willing to play in such an environment... not
additionally limit ourselves even more by saying ONLY Social Gamers are worth
retaining in EVE.

I say make EVE more not less for
everyone... as long as they want to play in an Open World PvP Sandbox. You
wanna play as one of hundreds? thousands? cool, we gotcha covered. You wanna
play solo?... cool we got that too, and you will be in the majority and I know
you will have an amazing experience 'cause you are playing EVE and yes, you are adding
to the game as a whole, no matter what the 'socialbears' say.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

I rarely visit the EVE Forums… if you ever want to find a
reason to stop playing EVE, spend a few hours reading the forums… you will find
enough pure puerile crap there to put you off the EVE playerbase forever.

But… one must keep in mind the forums are not representative
of all the players. They, for the most part... not all... attract a certain kind of player. The whiner, the
crybaby… those who don’t want to DO anything they just sit around and backseat-drive-CCP
‘cause they sooooo much smarter than ervybody else… and cannot wait to tell you
all about how they are. Yuch.

However, if one is willing to wade hip deep through the mental
swill you will find a few nuggets of real thought, an occasional post made by
someone who is intelligent (not just thinks he is) and who actually cares about
the game and realizes that the vast cesspool of :words: in the forums are at least
skimmed by CCP Devs and it is one fairly effective way to reach them with a
thought you had that actually makes sense.

In that light, for the very first time I read, or at least
skimmed (due to the occasional ‘I threw up in my mouth a little at that one’)
all of the current 31 pages of the Comments
for the recent Dev Blog on the New Structures… SHAKE MY
CITADEL 2015-05-12 17:50 By CCP Ytterbium.

I was looking for those gems, those rare nuggets of wisdom
and insight… and I gave up. One can swallow but so much sewage before thowing
up… turns out our minds work the same way… one can read but so much crap until you just fukkin
can’t bear it anymore… at least I can’t. But I did find something I had not expected
which was to be my, and this posts, salvation… screw what the assholes who post
on the forums say… what do the Devs say? Now THAT was a cat of a different color!

So from that point on I skimmed blithely through the pages and
pages of posts… ignoring most of the bile easily… and in the end actually
finding a post or two worth a read… and lo and behold most of them, the good,
well written and well thought out posts were also noticed by CCP and that was
where I found the Dev replies… kinda makes sense huh?

It was fun and informative. I simply skimmed until I hit a Dev post, read it, read back to see what prompted it and I found myself enjoying the forums for a change… will miracles never cease? I may have to make this a ‘thing’ I do here from time to time.

So… I have collected for your edification gentle reader, a snippet here and a quote in whole
there of about 99% of the Dev responses in the comments thread on the Citadel
Structure Dev Blog… a lot of very cool tidbits it too… makes for some
interesting reading if I do say so myself…

First let me say that CCP Ytterbium seems really fond of
bulleted or numbered lists of quick, to the point questions. If you are really
interested in getting answers, try a clear list of questions, but…

1) don’t ask anything already asked-n-answered and

2) make your questions something that can BE answered… not “WAA! WAA!
Why You Suck at EVE??”

So I basically grabbed every list of questions and his list
of answers… they are all the end of this post… That said, here is what I found…

FORCEFIELD:

…creating a replacement for force fields which works better (tm) and looks cooler. You will have a lot of the same benefits that the force field provides.

...docking puts you inside and safe, but you still see the grid outside the station.

The invulnerability link (we need a new name for this, taking suggestions) provides security while you are undocked and mobile around the structure.

Also yes docking games suck, so do force field games. We're accepting input on how we can setup the docking / invuln link to improve this, for all of space not just WH.

…it's going to be a new docked state, like a cross between docking in a station and sitting inside a POS shield.

ANCHORING/PERSONAL/CORP/DEPLOYMENT/ETC:

… we plan on allowing personal anchoring but you must
be a player corporation, not NPC (so you can be wardecced).

We aware of the concern of invaders setting up a beach head,
and are discussing with the CSM various options for changing anchoring
behavior in wormholes to help with this.

…want most of those structures to be available in W-space,
but with some special restrictions if need be.

There will be deployment restrictions, yes.

Mainly to avoid people
to be insta-omg-BBQ-blapped when coming out of warp / stations, to avoid having
space where structure defenses overlap or have them hidden inside landmarks or
other anomaly sites.

STRUCTURES:

No definite price checks yet, but building an XL should
have the same level of commitment as an outpost.

However, upgrading the thing with rigs is going to cost
much more, since they're going to take over outpost upgrades /
improvements.

Building and upgrading smaller structures will require far
much less commitment and resources.

Small structures are going to be the old deployables
(like containers, mobile tractor unit, bubbles etc...). But they won't be
able to be fitted and won't have most of the advanced mechanics tied with M, L,
X-L. They're deployables after all and are supposed to be very entry level to
use.

So, technically, your
"small citadel" would be a mobile depot, even if it doesn't really
earn that title to be honest.

Storage, security and fitting service will be on the hull.

Corp offices, market, industry, clones etc will all be
modules that have to be added and fueled.

…the amount of fuel will depend on the fittings, and they
will remain online without fuel (the services will go offline though).

Ideally we want the structures to have the same SKIN
system than ships.

Ultimately, it will depend on which kind of Service Module
you fit on those structures. Want to do reactions? Fit the reactor module. May
not be the best use of a Citadel though, since structures will have bonuses to
specific fields, like ships, and Citadels will be bonuses towards defense,
office and markets.

As mentioned in the previous blog and Fanfest presentation, we
will most likely not replace outposts with those new structures. We will
most likely reimburse outpost improvements and upgrades though

…new structures will use a completely new set of
blueprints. We'll get rid of the old starbase structure modules (and
reimburse them somehow) otherwise it's going to be a mess.

We thought about upgrading smaller sizes into bigger ones,
but it adds extra complexity and doesn't really make sense. Should you be
able to upgrade a frigate into a battleship if you put enough money into it?
:P Both are built for different needs and purposes.

No factional variation. You won't have an Amarr, Caldari,
Gallente or Minmatar variations. We want types to exist if they have a good
role by themselves, not to fit some factional flavor. That doesn't mean they
won't be influenced by some specific NPC corporation or faction, but they will
not mandate structure number themselves.

Our current plan is to have a maximum limit of 8 high, 8
medium, 8 low, 8 service and 3 rig slots yes. That doesn't mean all of them
will available at once (just like on ships) though.

Yes our current thinking is that you can access personal
storage from the structure by being within docking range, same as POS.

Yes all these structures will get personal hangars.

DEFENSES/ENTOSIS/ETC.:

We are considering showing all structures on the on board
scanner / sensor overlay allowing you to either warp directly to them or at
least show you that structures are anchored in system so you can probe them
down.

We are leaning towards just showing everything on the
system overlay / onboard scanner with the ability to warp to them, or at
the very least showing you how many structures of each size exist in system.
They will show on the overview if you have access to them.

Unlike existing Starbases, you won't need multiple guys to
operate the weapons. Those structures will be like ships, so you will only
need one guy to control them all. The Starbase Defense Management skill
will be reworked into something else or refunded when Starbases are removed.

We have been discussing the idea of a module that
recruits pirate spawns to defend against people entosis linking your structure,
but ultimately how customizable the timezone mechanics are will be the key
here.

You would not rely in NPC defense at all, it would be
a mild deterrent against a lone ship at best, the point is to show up
for your timers and defend.

Like I said, it depends a lot on the timers and I'm
assuming if you're solo you are in high sec, so in part wardec mechanics
too. Fortunately the asset safety means although you lose your structure,
you won't lose everything inside it.

If you cannot defend your structure though, you won't be
able to keep it, but we want to give you every reasonable chance to defend
it including the more casual players.

Vulnerability windows for structures will not necessarily
be everyday, and the time to capture will vary depending on the
structure and where it is anchored. We are very aware of the concerns of
small groups having fewer people online to defend.

We're considering letting you scan who is docked inside
these structures.

You won't be required to defend these everyday like sov, and
the structure will drop fittings, fuel maybe in progress industry jobs
etc.

You would protect a structure by using the Entosis module
to prevent the opposing party to attack it during its vulnerability window. Or
you would use the defenses fitted to kill them all while laughing like a
maniac.

Accidental killings are a tricky business. We may either
want to forbid you from locking and shooting neutrals in high-sec (permanent
safety mechanic), or, if we can do it, allow you to do so but have CONCORD
show up and destroy your structure if you commit an act of aggression.
Depends on technical and design difficulties, too early to say so far. In
all cases AoE weapons will not be allowed in high-sec for obvious reasons.

It's too early to say how NPC stations will be affected. We
want those structures to be more efficient than NPC stations though, which
either means boosting them or nerfing NPC stations.

Q’s and A’s

A FEW Q’s:

1. Larges; if we can’t dock caps in them then how will we
keep them in WH space especially since it seems that XL's are going to replace
stations and hence won’t really be allowed in WH's, plus they are supposed to
be very expensive.

2. Vulnerability window; how will that work in WH space
where we can’t claim SOV to boost our indices to reduce our vulnerability
timer.

3. Will the office, cloning, and market functions work in WH
space.

4. How will these structures accommodate or replace the
current practice in WH's to have Squad POS's with members of each POS having a
specific corp hanger division assigned to them and their alts.

EX: 10 members are living in a WH, each with multiple alts,
there are two towers with 5 members assigned to each with secret passwords to
restrict access to those assigned. In tower 1 Scott is assigned division 5 and
the other members are assigned the remainder. Scott has 4 alts and each of them
have the same hanger division assigned allowing for easy consolidation of
modules and items such as PI and minerals/Ore. Will this functionality be
preserved?

5. How will ship storage be maintained, will it be similar
to the current SMA mechanics or will it be more like stations with hangers
divided restricted to each character. Maybe a combination of each allow you the
option to set up shared hangers?

A FEW A’s:

1. You would still have the invulnerability link, but
yes, you are right, that's one of the arguments in favor to allow capitals in
the Large Citadels.

2. What we are thinking so far is to have high-sec and
W-space have higher indices that null-sec by default. So they will be naturally
less vulnerable there. We are also thinking about modules, rigs and
gameplay options to affect the vulnerability window, but at a price.

3. It depends on which kind of gameplay we want to have
in W-space. So far, office and market functions look fine, cloning does not.
Again, not set in stone at this point.

Sounds so complicated… How about we give you guys
personal hangers instead, just like in NPC stations / outposts? And then, if
you don't want people to dock in a specific structure you can set restrictions
to do so.

MOAR Q’s: (only quoted questions that were answered)

1. Can I anchor them anywhere (apart from some proximity
restrictions). Does it have to be moons or can I put them at any spot in space.
Can I have more than one on one grid?

6. Will citadel be able to shot without anyone piloting the
guns?

7. Will there be fuel requirement. And if yes how will it
work when structure go offline in terms of destroying it with Entosis link?
Today if I forgot to fuel my pos and some start to shoot it will give me still
some time to log back, fuel and online it (risking being killed ofc). How this
will work with Entosis link and offline structures?

8. Will there be a way for attacker to know how many people
are inside structure docked and in what ships? (i.e. warping to a pos and
assessing defense forces)

9. When docked will I be able to see space or will I have
some sort of station interior? (HINT: We want to be able to see our surrounding,
even if optionally)

10. X-L structures in WH?

11. How will refitting work for structures? If I'm under
attack or about to be attacked can I swap my guns or something? Will there be a
delay before new setup will take effect?

Pls add some loot drop. Wormholers don’t attack poses for
"production materials" and can’t stay in system for weeks waiting for
defenders to scoop loot.

MOAR A’s:

1. So far, our
plan is to have them anywhere yes, as long as proximity restrictions are
respected.

6. Structures won't be able to shoot without someone
manning the guns. As CCP Nullarbor mentioned, we have options under our
sleeves to mitigate the risk from this change. Like having a reduced
vulnerability window in specific areas, and / or be able to have NPCs spawn.

7. Fuel is so far only going to be needed to activate the
service modules, those structure shouldn't use fuel on their own, please
refer to our previous blog for more details.

8. Not sure about being able to know docked people, may
be part of scanning mechanics, but open to discussion.

9. When docked you will see surrounding space.

10. Yes, ideally we want all structure sizes and types
everywhere. There may be gampeplay restrictions on them and / or their
respective modules if needed however.

11. Refitting will most likely drain capacitor (like
on ships) so while you could do it in combat, this would not be advisable.

EVEN MOAR Q’s:

1) However, will destroying these new M-XL class structures
generate killmails?

2) When it comes to finding them in space, I agree with
other posters that they should not necessarily need probes to scan down.
However, maybe make this dependent on a fitted module or rig, where by default
you can find the structure via dscan and directly warping to it, but players
can customize them to require probes to find--for a cost. Say, a "dscan
inhibitor rig" which has relevant drawbacks (e.g., maybe weakens the
defenses or reduces the benefits the citadel gives) but then adds the requirement
of combat probes to find the structure?

3) When it comes to giving player citadels benefits for
trading above NPC stations, I would suggest (as a trader myself) raising the
default NPC tax rate on stations. I think something this harsh is needed
because it would be the only thing that would--personally--get a player like
myself to trade in a player-run market, or start my own. However, how will it
work in the market itself? Will public citadels in the region with sell
orders--say, seeing nanite paste--appear on the market search, where I can then
set destination to this public citadel?

4) Would it be possible to anchor two citadels close enough
to one another so that they can fight each other? Citadel versus Citadel pvp??!
That would be pretty fun and would open up a lot of gameplay options,
especially in WH evictions.

5) Any thoughts yet about how the market will be seeded with
the relevant structures and modules? Regular blueprint sales in NPC stations,
for instance, or will there also be any BPCs that drop, say, for a Serpentis L
Citadel which, like faction towers currently, give certain bonuses above the
regular towers etc.?

3. Market will come a bit later and we'll have a detailed
blog about how that will work but yes we reduced market tax will be a good
incentive to use a player built market over the NPC ones.

4. No, because of so many reasons… (Citadel
versus Citadel pvp??!)

5. That's a bit early to say, we have a lot of options for
new industry here building the structures and all the modules.

AGAIN WITH THE Q’s:

1) However, will destroying these new M-XL class structures
generate killmails?

2) When it comes to finding them in space, I agree with
other posters that they should not necessarily need probes to scan down.
However, maybe make this dependent on a fitted module or rig, where by default
you can find the structure via dscan and directly warping to it, but players
can customize them to require probes to find--for a cost. Say, a "dscan inhibitor
rig" which has relevant drawbacks (e.g., maybe weakens the defenses or
reduces the benefits the citadel gives) but then adds the requirement of combat
probes to find the structure?

3) When it comes to giving player citadels benefits for
trading above NPC stations, I would suggest (as a trader myself) raising the
default NPC tax rate on stations. I think something this harsh is needed
because it would be the only thing that would--personally--get a player like
myself to trade in a player-run market, or start my own. However, how will it
work in the market itself? Will public citadels in the region with sell
orders--say, seeing nanite paste--appear on the market search, where I can then
set destination to this public citadel?

4) Would it be possible to anchor two citadels close enough
to one another so that they can fight each other? Citadel versus Citadel pvp??!
That would be pretty fun and would open up a lot of gameplay options, especially
in WH evictions.

5) Any thoughts yet about how the market will be seeded with
the relevant structures and modules? Regular blueprint sales in NPC stations,
for instance, or will there also be any BPCs that drop, say, for a Serpentis L
Citadel which, like faction towers currently, give certain bonuses above the
regular towers etc.?

HENCE MOAR OF THE A’s:

1. Why shouldn't they generate killmails? We know how much
you guys like your killmail states.

2. Been answered before.

3. You've heard it first here guys! If we end up raising
taxing on NPC stations, you will have Sven Viko VIkolander to thank for it!
Twisted More seriously, player structures should be treated exactly like NPC
stations if they're set as public, or if you have personal access to them.

4. Short answer: no. Long answer: noooooooooooooooooo.
Because those don't use HP mechanics to be taken down, thanks to the Entosis
module, what would you achieve by having them shoot each other? They will not
be affected by raw damage.

5. We will most likely seed blueprints for Tech I versions
from the NPC market. Faction variants will drop as loot and LP stores. Tech II
variants can be invented. Those act as ships remember, thus they should be
acquired in a similar way.

Lastly…

CCP Lebowski wrote:

Soldarius wrote:

“w-space was never
meant to be occupied. You should not be living there.”

“We are absolutely
happy with how players have taken the wormhole feature and run with it over the
last five years and we look forward to many more years of watching the
adventures of the wormhole community with joy and awe. Anyone telling you
otherwise is woefully mistaken.”

Personally I love
wormhole space, and try to make sure all those crazy bob worshippers are always
considered :)

Sunday, May 10, 2015

I am still in Hisec… I have not
left yet… and I am still enjoying myself immensely… something is terribly truly
terribly wrong here. =\

I have started a BM Folder for
Jove Spikes. I BM any and all Jove Observatories I see when I am out-n-about
making store runs or some such. I have 3 systems now between Mormoen, Amarr and
Dodixie with Jove Spikes in em. You see it is my experience that the Seekers
don’t ‘always’ spawn just cause you warp in. I have warped to a Spike and
orbited and sat at ‘0’ for 5, 10 minutes and seen nada… zip, no Seekers.

Other times they have spawned as
I land, or seconds after I land or as I warp out disgusted that they are not
going to spawn… had that happen more-n-once. I have landed only to have them
warp out past me. I have been chased by them, ignore by them, killed by them
and made some very decent ISK off them… well, off the Seekers at least… I’m
quite literally scared to clonedeath of the Drifters.

I also heard/read that if you
Entosify (Ento? Entosif? Entosing?) IE target and run an Entosis Link on a Jove
Observatory you get bacon. Hrm… OK, so I made a store run to Dodi, bought both E-Link I and II AND (for the very first time in my EVElife) I bought a BPO,
an Entosis Link BPO. Keep in mind at the time we are taking 100m ISK for the
E-link I and 250m ISK for the E-Link II and 250m ISK for the BPO… sheesh. That
took me wallet under a bil for the first time in months.

Anyhoo… now I took a hard look at what to put
it on. You see the way these things work is (1) a cycle time of 120 seconds… 2
full minutes… during which you cannot warp. (2) they take fuel, Stront,
(Strontium Clathrates to be exact) 1 unit of Stront per cycle. (3) the T1 has a
range of 25km and the T2 has a range of 250km… this means you are self-disrupted
for 2 minutes within 25km (T1), or up to 250km (T2) depending, of a Jove Observation
Tower… you know, the place where Drifter BSes spawn… oh yeah, there.

[Note: this post was started
before Fozzie changed the E-Links… and I am too tired to go a dig up the new
specs… =P ]

So? So. So… LOLCeptor FTW. Yup…
these things do fit on ‘ceptors and yes that is exactly what I am using. You
see if/when the Drifters spawn I want OUT. And as I can’t warp away I will take
the next best thing… speed tank as best I can while I hopefully get out of
trubble faster than I got into it. This has, so far at least, worked with Seekers.

I landed on the Spike in Mormoen
and started orbiting at 24km at near 5k m/s, I had made 2 BMs directly opposite
the Spike Beacon where the Sleepers most often spawn, one at 200km and one at
400km. Once orbiting target and start the E-Link on the tower and select the
400km BM… now all I have to do is run n like hell if/when Seekers or Drifters
spawn and hope 5000 m/s is fast enough, and my angle to the Sleepers is good
enough so I have some transversal and can GTFO safely. So far this has worked
twice with Seekers… haven’t had a Drifter spawn on me while Entosing (yes, I
have settled on ‘Entosing’ as the verb form…) the tower yet.

So, what I have gotten while
Enotsing the tower is one (1) Antikythera Element per cycle… One approx 10 mil
ISK piece of bacon every 2 minutes… not too shabby. Plus you also get 1 unit of
“Gleaned Information”. This is basically a data unit with some of the Jove
Observation logs, these are the 4 I have collected so far…

Interesting… as Spock might say.

I am curious how all this is
going to play out… you see the Drifters ‘seem’ to be disassembling the Jove Towers…
I watched a Drifter and a Seeker working on one a few nights ago… and later the
same Drifter was joined by another and they both were doing something to the
spike. Not shooting or scanning it… but some form of energy ‘beam’ was being
‘fired’ or ‘played’ on the structure. One of my corpmates said he heard/read
they were taking them down… hmm.

Now we have the Entosis Link, and
it requires 1 unit of Antikythera Element per E-link, T1 or T2, so we will have
to have some way to continue to gather these. Right now it is Seekers and
‘tosing (howz that for a quick slide to a slang verb form?) a Jove Spike… yet
the Drifters seem to be taking the Spikes down and no one knows what they are
going to do next…

This is Hilen Tukoss aboard the Scout vessel
(static), Scout vessel Arek’Jaalan. This is an emergency broadcast. We have
succeeded (static) into an unidentified wormhole(??). (static)I can
see Hundreds of these (static). We have a (low??) signal but we are (holding it??)
as long as we can. Notify (DED??) Notify the DED. We may be facing a possible
major (invasion??). More and More ships have been arriving at this enormous
structure [Defense Alarm]… Detected at (static)-(en??) it is pos(ible??)
that (static) (undecipherable) (static) [Defense Alarm]…

In the video we see a structure I
have never seen before, a cloaked Buzzard Cov Ops scout ship assumed to be the
Scout vessel “Arek’Jaalan”, an impressive force of Drifter Battleships and
Circadian Seekers; the Buzzard gets decloaked and we hear the Defense Alarms go
off… all through this Tukoss is attempting to transmit his dire warning. We
can, I am afraid, safely assume the Scout vessel “Arek’Jaalan” and its crew
were lost. I do not know if Hilen Tukoss was an Empyrean, I do not believe he
is… and if he isn’t, then he too is lost to us now.

So… it does seem that interesting
times just are around the corner in New Eden my friends… interesting times indeed. For me, I think for now I’ll stay in
Empire… I joined EVE back in the heady days of Incursion… I saw one of the first Incursions, and lived to tell the tale… now it looks as
though we may have another “incursion” into new Eden from a different enemy
with far different goals… and this time, it’s an enemy I have spent my lives
fighting already…I'm here...I'm ready.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

I have been having a ball in
Hisec… bet those of you who know me, or actually read the stuff what comes from
my brain, never thought you’d hear that from me, but it’s true…

You see I base out of Amarr when
in Empire and last weekend I was in the hole solo and I scanned a hellishly
long pipe out to Empire and made a store run to Amarr to sell my PI wares. I
had thousands of Supercomputers, Robotics, Consumer Electronics and a
smattering of over produced P2s to sell… enough to fill a fully canned and
Cargo fit Prowler… vurry nice semi passive income to say the least.

Anyhoo, so while in Empire I
decided to see to rounding up some of the last of my ships and goods as were
still strewn here and there around the ‘verse and try to get them in the hole. These
are all the leftovers from the Big Move into our new C4 homehole. Over in Mormoen
I had a Mastodon and a shit tonne of GSC’s (Giant Secure Cans) full of PI and a
crap load of mods plus a couple of ships so I trundled on out that way inna
Prowler as I knew I had some high value stuffs and wanted to get them in to
market too.

So I get out
there and I’m gettin’ the Mast and Prowler loaded up and squared away when I
discover a very particular SSC, Small Secure Can… one that has, well let’s just
say it’s worth more than the ships and all the other CAN’s combined shall we? Hrm…
Now while Prowlers cannot be cargo scanned, or because Prowlers cannot be cargo
scanned, they sometimes fall prey to ganks on the off chance they are hauling
something really valuable… like a SSC worth its weight in PLEX, and no, that is
not what I had in the SSC… I don’t ever EVER transport PLEX… I am amazed that
anyone ever does, no matter the reason.

That said, so I have this really
godsawful expensive SSC I need to safely move to Amarr… so I bought a Crusader ‘ceptor
and fitted it for SlipperySpeed… IE fast to warp plus just fast. But I lost the
lows to the x3 Cargo Expander IIs needed to carry the 100m3 CAN… that cost me some
slippery an’ some fast but not too much as she worked just fine when I finally
made the trip safely to Amarr… Yes ‘made’ as in past tense so no one needs to waste
time camping the route. =P

Anyhoo, while I am doing all of
this I am also as usual following them as I follow in the blogshere and Neville
Smit, of NevilleSmit.com (go figger) recently
posted a nice little write up, Bits
and Pieces: April 2015, in which he gave us this…

Hm, uh, er, hm. I make my daily
bread killing Sleepers in Anoikis… and ever since the Seekers first appeared in
Empire space they have not really attracted much of my attention other than the
very cool ‘whatthehellisCCPuptonow??’ factor, which was plenty good IMHO. But
this was the first I had heard that they has started dropping stuff worth
killing, and possibly dying for…

Well, it turned out one of the
ships I had in Mormoen was one of my Sleeper Ishtars, schweet. I had her broke
down and crated for the move so I broke ‘er out and fit ‘er up with what I felt
it might take to handle Seekers, CAP stable w/ MWD off, active shield, 26k EHP, 70/82/94/77 resists and our std Gecko/Hammer II/x3 Hobgob IIs Sleeper drone setup. The tank
is designed to let me kill the Seekers and also to ‘potentially’ buy me the
time needed to GTFO if/when a Drifter drops on me while farming his little
seeker pals… IF I’m flying smart and on the bounce that is… big ‘IF’ that…

So I’m ready and I undock… and lo
and behold there is a Jove Observatory in Mormoen!! I do the warping back-n-forth
thing make some pounce BMs at 160km at the station and at 200km at the Jove
Observatory... then I warped into the site, 5 Seekers spawn and I go in hot...

Now here’s the fun… the Seekers
do not react in set piece ways all the time, they are tough but not too tough,
fast but not too fast... and they sometimes warp off if you break contact OR they
sometimes follow you if you warp off!! And they will re-engage! At one point I
decided to refit as they were outrunning my heavier droans and it was taking longer
than I liked to break them.So after downing 3 of the Seekers I broke contact
and warped to the station pounce… and the remaining Seekers followed, landed
and engaged me! I fought the same spawn at the Jove Spike and at the Station!! Schweet!
I settle with the last 2 Seekers, dock up, refit to add a Web, go out and scoop
the Antikythera Elements (AKEs) drop them in station and warp back out to the
Jove Spike.

I piddle around a bit at the Jove
Spike but no spawn to I go back to station and fiddle with my fit a bit more…
go a few hops out n back to get some other mods to try, that done I head back to the Jove Spike and… 6
Seekers spawn! Hells yes! I go in and orbit close to use the web and now
things are going a bit better.

One of the things that makes this so much fun is the constant and very real fear of the Drifter HotDrop... I have watched
the videos and read the killmails and battle reports… Drifters kill capitols… while the Ishtar is good it aint THAT good!! So I am trying to really watch the
sky but... as I am finishing off the last Seeker my attention is focused on… in order; order
drones IN, burn in to the wreck, align out, loot the MTU, scoop the MTU…So while
I’m trying to do all this a Drifter spawns and I don’t realize he’s there until
I get hit… but Drifter weapons fire is very distinctive and I know immediately
that that’s what I’m getting hit with! But luckily I had already aligned to my pounce so I spam warp and he
only gets one more hit on me before I went to warp and broke contact… but even
then…

Yup… 2 hits, stripped off all
shields and armor and 9% of my hull... But I DID make it out validating my mathing
that the tank I had devised just might last long enough to get me out IF I was flying
smart and on the bounce… and I was.

So I land at the pounce, the
Drifter targets me and goes red as I go to warp to the station to repair… but the
station I am in does not have repair facilities. So I undock and… He’s there…
EEP! I reflexively dock up until I realize I have full shields again, still no
armor and 91% hull though… so I played dock games with the Drifter for a little
then warp off and find a repair station.

Now back when the Drifter had
spawned I had not made pickup on the MTU as it had been pulling in the last
wreck when I warped out… So I head back out for the last Seeker Drop and that
MTU and damn near got caught by the Drifter again... He spawned in the site as
I landed at the pounce 200km out… he warped out as I warped in I grabbed the
MTU and passed him again on my way out… LOL!!

I ran another spawn a bit later so that night I ran 2 spawns of 2 waves each
and scooped a total of 9 Antikythera Elements (AKEs) for an ingame estimate of 12.6m
ISK each... potentially 113.4m ISK!! oh hells yeah!!! Simply the BEST and most
lucrative pure FUN I have had doing anything, much less solo PvE, in Hisec in
YEARS!!!!Oh and the title? Yea that… the
next night I flew to Amarr and the actual sell price for AKEs was 13,899,999.99
ISK… I was gonna put mine up for 13,899,000.00… so I typed “1” and my pinky hit
the “enter” key…

Them as what follow me...

Graphiti...

Round and round we go...

Fav Post Bytes...

"Maybe we're not that different after all and I have my own reality to get to grips with."Absence of Substance

Now THAT is wisdom...

We are, each and alone, the absolute center of our subjective 'verse... this is the way of life.To see another's POV as if it were your own... this is the way of truth...To allow that some others have POVs you cannot and will never understand, and yet accept them as they are, this is the way of acceptance...To kill them all without rancor or anger, but in brotherhood... this is the way of EVE.

This Is What We DO!!!

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We're Soooo Bad at Hisec!

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